2 José Donoso (trans. Hardie St. Martin & Leonard Mades) first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Obscene Bird of Night (1973) to A House in the Country (1984). Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that José Donoso (trans. Hardie St. Martin & Leonard Mades) title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.

Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a José Donoso (trans. Hardie St. Martin & Leonard Mades) copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

The Obscene Bird of Night — 1973 · Alfred A. Knopf, New YorkFirst English edition, translated by Hardie St. Martin and Leonard Mades: Alfred A. Knopf cloth in dust jacket, New York, 1973. This Knopf translation is abridged (roughly twenty pages cut versus the Spanish text). The true first edition is the Spanish 'El obsceno pájaro de la noche' (Seix Barral, Barcelona, 1970). The 1973 Knopf is the first (abridged) English-language edition. The 2024 New Directions edition revises the St. Martin/Mades translation with Megan McDowell, restoring nearly twenty pages of previously untranslated text — a distinct first-thus for the complete text, not a reprint of the Knopf text. Godine and later paperbacks reprint the abridged Knopf text; the McDowell unabridged edition is a separate first-thus, not a book-club edition or reprint of the 1973 cloth.
A House in the Country — 1984 · Alfred A. Knopf, New YorkFirst American edition, translated by David Pritchard with Suzanne Jill Levine: Alfred A. Knopf cloth in dust jacket, New York, 1984 (352 pages; ISBN 0-394-50949-8). Translation of 'Casa de campo.' As a Knopf first the copyright page carries the stated 'First American Edition' line (used because the book had already appeared abroad in Spanish) together with the 'This is a Borzoi Book' notice, and the Borzoi…. The true first edition is the Spanish 'Casa de campo' (Seix Barral, 1978). The 1984 Knopf is the first American edition; a first UK edition was issued the same year by Allen Lane in light blue paper boards with a gilt-lettered spine and pictorial priced jacket. The two 1984 English editions appear essentially concurrent, so verify priority if exact precedence is needed; the US Knopf is the standard cited English…. Later paperbacks (including the Knopf Aventura paperback) are reprints, not the 1984 cloth first; a genuine Knopf first is confirmed by the 'First American Edition' statement on the copyright page.

More Literary Fiction (UK & World) shelves: José Saramago, Julio Cortázar, Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Kazuo Ishiguro, Knut Hamsun.

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